ADDRESS
OF THE
COMMITTEE AND COUNCIL OF THE
CHEROKEE NATION IN GENERAL
COUNCIL CONVENED

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE
UNITED STATES,

Some months ago a delegation was appointed by the constituted authorities
of the Cherokee nation, to repair to the City of Washington, and in behalf of
this nation, to lay before the Government of the United States such representations
as should seem most likely to secure to us as a people that protection, aid,
and good neighborhood which had been so often promised to us, and of which we
stand in great need. Soon after their arrival in the City they presented to
Congress a petition from our National Council, asking for the interposition
of that body in our behalf, especially with reference to the laws of Georgia,
which were suspended in a most terrifying manner over a large part of our population,
and protesting in the most decided terms against the operation of these laws.
In the course of the winter they presented petitions to Congress, signed by
more than four thousand of our citizens including probably more than nineteen
twentieths and for naught we can tell ninety-nine hundredths, of the adult males
of the nation, (our whole population being about sixteen thousand,) pleading
with the assembled representatives of the American people, that the solemn engagements
between their fathers and our fathers may be preserved, as they have been till
recently in full force and continued operation asking in a word, for protection
against threatened usurpation and for a faithful execution of a guaranty which
is perfectly plain in its meaning, has been repeatedly and rigidly enforced
in our favor and had received the sanction of the government of the United States
of nearly forth years.

More than a year ago, we were officially given to understand by the Secretary
of War, that the President could not protect us against the laws of Georgia.
This information was entirely unexpected, as it went upon the principle, that
treaties made between the United States and the Cherokee Nation have no power
to withstand the legislation of separate States; and of course, that they have
no efficacy whatever, but leave our people to the mercy of the neighboring whites,
whose supposed interests would be promoted by our expulsion or extermination.
It would be impossible to describe the sorrow which effected our minds on learning
that the Chief magistrate of the United States had come to this conclusion,
that all his illustrious predecessors had held intercourse with us on principles
which could not be sustained; that they had made promises of vital importance
to us, which could not be fulfilled- promises made hundreds of times in almost
every conceivable manner,-often in the form of solemn treaties, sometimes in
letters written by the Chief Magistrate with his own hand, very often in letters
written by the Secretary of War under his direction, sometimes orally by the
President and the Secretary in our chiefs, and frequently and always both orally
and in writing by an agent of the United States residing among us whose most
important business it was to see the guaranty of the United States faithfully
executed.

Soon after the war of the Revolution, as we have learned from our fathers,
the Cherokees looked upon the promises of the whites with great distrust and
suspicion, but the frank and magnanimous conduct of General Washington did reach
to ally these feelings. The perseverance of successive Presidents and especially
of Mr. Jefferson in the same course of policy, and in the constant assurance
that our country should remain inviolate except so far as we voluntarily ceded
it, nearly banished anxiety in regard to encroachments from the whites. To this
result the aid which we received from the United States in the attempts of our
people to become civilized, and the kind efforts of benevolent societies have
greatly contributed. Of late years however, much solicitude was occasioned among
our people by the claims of Georgia. This solicitude arose from an apprehension,
that, by extreme importunity, threats, and other undue influence, a treaty would
be wade, which should cede the territory and thus compel the inhabitants to
remove. But it never occurred to us for a moment, that without any new treaty,
without any assent of our rulers and people, without even a pretended compact,
and against our vehement and unanimous protestations, we should be delivered
over to the discretion of those, who had declared by a legislative act, that
they wanted the Cherokee lands and would have them ceded.

Finding that relief could not be obtained from the Chief Magistrate, and not
doubting that our claim to protection was just, we made our application to Congress.
During four long months our delegation waited at the doors of the National Legislature
of the United States, and the people at home in the most painful suspense, to
learn in what manner our application would be answered; & now Congress has
adjourned on the very day before the date fixed by Georgia for the extension
of her oppressive laws over the greater part of our country, the distressing
intelligence has been received that we have received no answer at all; and no
department of the Government has assured us, that we are to receive the desired
protection. But just at the close of the session, an act was passed by which
half a million of dollars was appropriated towards effecting a removal of Indians;
and we have great reason to fear that the influence of this act will be brought
to bear most injuriously upon us. The passage of this act is certainly understood
by the representatives of Georgia as abandoning us to the oppressive and cruel
measures of the State, and as sanctioning the opinion that treaties with Indians
do not restrain State Legislation. We are informed by those who are competent
to judge that the recent act does not admit to such construction, but that the
passage of it under the actual circumstances of the controversy will be considered
as sanctioning the pretensions of Georgia. There is too much reason to fear.

Thus have we realized with heavy hearts, that our supplication has not been
heard, that the protection heretofore experienced is now to be withheld; that
the guaranty in consequence of which our fathers laid aside their arms and ceded
the best portions of their country means nothing and that we must either emigrate
to an unknown region and leave the pleasant land to which we have the strongest
attachments, or submit to the legislation of a State, which has already made
our people outlaws, and enacted that any Cherokee, who shall endeavor to prevent
the selling of his country, shall be imprisoned in the Penitentiary of Georgia
not less than four years. To our countrymen, this has been melancholy intelligence,
and with the most bitter disappointment has it been received.

But in the midst of our sorrows; we do not forget our obligations to our friends
and benefactors. It was with sensations of inexpressible joy, that we have learned,
that the voice of thousands in many parts of the United States has been raised
in our behalf, and numerous memorials offered in our favor, to both houses of
Congress. To those, numerous friends, who have thus sympathized with us in our
low estate, we tender our grateful acknowledgements. In pleading our cause,
they have pleaded the cause of the poor and defenseless throughout the world.
Our special thanks are due, however, to those honorable men who so ably and
eloquently asserted our rights in both branches of the national legislature.
Their efforts will be appreciated whenever the merits of this question shall
be known,; and we cannot but think that they have secured for themselves a permanent
reputation among the disinterested advocates of humanity and equal rights, justice,
and good faith. We even cherish the hope that these efforts seconded and followed
by others of similar character will yet be available, so far as to mitigate
our sufferings if not to effect our entire deliverance.

Before we close this address, permit us to state what we conceive to be our
relations with the United States. After the peace of 1783, the Cherokees were
an independent people; absolutely so, as much as any people on earth. They had
been allies to Great Britain and as a faithful ally took a part in the colonial
war on her side. They had placed themselves under her protection, and had they,
without cause, declared hostility against their protector, and had the colonies
been subdued what might not have been their fate. But her power on this continent
was broken. She acknowledged the independence of the United States, and made
peace. The Cherokees therefore stood alone; and in these circumstances continued
the war. They were then under no obligation to the United State and more than
to Great Britain, France or Spain. The United States never subjugated the Cherokees;
on the contrary, our fathers remained in possession of their country, and with
arms in their hands.

The people of the United States sought a peace; and in 1785, the treaty of
Hopewell was formed, by which the Cherokees came under the protection of the
United States, and submitted to such limitations of sovereignty as are mentioned
in that instrument. None of these limitations, however, affected to the slightest
degree their rights of self government; and inviolate territory. The citizens
of the United States had no right of passage through the Cherokee country till
the year 1791, and then only in one direction, and by an express treaty stipulation.
When the Federal Constitution was adopted, the treaty of Hopewell was confirmed,
with all other treaties as the Supreme law of the land. In 1791, the treaty
of Holston was made, by which the sovereignty of the Cherokees was qualified
as follows: The Cherokees acknowledged themselves to be under the protection
of the United States and of no other sovereign. They engaged that they would
not hold any treaty with a foreign power, with any separate State of the Union,
or with individuals. They agreed that the United States should have exclusive
right of regulating their trade; that the citizens of the United States should
have a right of way in one direction through the Cherokee country, and that
if an Indian should do injury to a citizen of the United States, he should be
delivered up to be tried and punished. A cession of lands was also made to the
United States. On the other hand, the United States paid a sum of money; offered
protection; engaged to punish citizens of the United States who should do any
injury to the Cherokees abandoned white settlers on Cherokees lands to the discretion
of the Cherokees; stipulated that white men should not hunt on these lands;
not even enter the country without a passport; and gave a solemn guaranty of
all Cherokee lands not ceded. This treaty is the basis of all subsequent compacts;
and in none of them are the relations of the parties at all changed.

The Cherokees have always fulfilled their engagements. They have never reclaimed
those portions of sovereignty, which they surrendered by the treaties of Hopewell
and Holston. These portions were surrendered for the purpose of obtaining the
guaranty which was recommended to them as the great equivalent. Had they refused
to comply with their engagements, there is no doubt the United States would
have enforced compliance. Is the duty to fulfil engagements on the other side
less binding than it would be if the Cherokees had the power of enforcing their
just claims?

The people of the United States will have the fairness to reflect, that all
the treaties between them and the Cherokees were made at the solicitation a
nd for the benefit of the whites that valuable considerations were given for
every stipulation on the part of the United States, that it is impossible to
reinstate the parties in their former situation; that there are now hundreds
of thousands of citizens of the United States residing upon lands ceded by the
Cherokees in these very treaties; and that our people have trusted their country
to the guaranty of the United States, if this guaranty fails them, in what can
they trust, and where can they look for protection?

We are aware, that some persons suppose it will be for our advantage to remove
beyond the Mississippi. We think otherwise. Our people universally think, otherwise.
Thinking it would be fatal to their interests, they have almost to a man sent
their memorial to Congress, deprecating the necessity of a removal. This question
was distinctly before their minds when they signed their memorial. Not an adult
person can be found, who has not an opinion on the subject, and if the people
were to understand distinctly, that they could be protected against the laws
of the neighboring States, there is probably not an adult person in the nation
who would think it best to remove; though possibly a few might emigrate individually.
There are doubtless many, who would flee to an unknown country, however beset
with dangers, privations and sufferings, rather than be sentenced to spend six
years in a Georgia prison for advising one of their neighbors not to betray
his country. And there are others who could not think of living as outlaws in
their native land, exposed to numberless vexations, and excluded from being
parties or witnesses in a court of justice. It is incredible that Georgia should
ever have enacted the oppressive laws to which reference is here made, unless
she had supposed that something extremely terrific in its character was necessary
in order to make the Cherokees willing to remove. We are not willing to remove;
and if we could be brought to this extremity, it would be not by argument, not
because our judgment was satisfied, not because our condition will be improved;
but only because we cannot endure to be deprived of our national and individual
rights and subjected to a process of intolerable oppression.

We wish to remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect & original
right to remain without interruption or molestation. The treaties with us, and
laws of the United States made in pursuance of treaties, guaranty our residence
and our privileges and secure us against intruders. Our only request is that
these treaties may be fulfilled, and these laws executed.

But if we are compelled to leave our country, we see nothing but ruin before
us. The country west of the Arkansas territory is unknown to us. From what we
can learn of it, we have no prepossessions in its favor. All the inviting parts
of it, as we believe are preoccupied by various Indian nations, to which it
has been assigned. They would regard us as intruders, and look upon us with
an evil eye. The far greater part of that region is, beyond all controversy,
badly supplied with wood and water; and no Indian tribe can live as agriculturists
without these articles. All our neighbors, in case of our removal though crowded
into our near vicinity, would speak a language totally different from ours,
and practice different customs. The original possessions of that region are
now wandering savages, lurking for prey in the neighborhood. They have always
been at war, and would be easily tempted to turn their arms against peaceful
emigrants. Were the country to which we are urged much better than it is represented
to be, and were it free from the objections which we have made to it, still
it is not the land of our birth, nor of our affections. It contains neither
the scenes of our childhood nor the graves of our fathers.

The removal of families to a new country, even under the most favorable auspices,
and when the spirits sustained by pleasing visions of the future, is attended
with much depression of mind and sinking of heart. This is the case when the
removal is a matter of decided preference, and when the persons concerned are
in early youth or vigorous manhood. Judge, then, what must be the circumstances
of a removal, when a whole community embracing persons of all classes and every
description from the infant to the man of extreme old age, the sick; the blind,
the lame, the improvident, the reckless, the desperate, as well as the prudent,
the considerate, the industrious, are compelled to remove by odious and intolerable
vexations and persecutions, brought upon them in the form of law, when all will
agree only in this, that they have been cruelly robbed of their country, in
violation of the most solemn compacts, which it is possible for communities
to form with each other; and that, if they c=should make themselves comfortable
in their new residence, they have nothing to expect hereafter but to be the
citizens of a future legalized robbery!

Such, we deem, and are absolutely certain, will be the feelings of the whole
Cherokee people, if they are forcibly compelled by the laws of Georgia to remove;
and with these feelings, how is it possible that we should pursue our present
course of improvement, or avoid sinking into utter despondency? We have been
called a poor, ignorant, and degraded people. We certainly are not rich; nor
have we ever boasted of our knowledge, or our moral or intellectual elevation.
But there is not a man within our limits so ignorant as not to know that he
has a right to live on the land of his fathers, in the possession of his immemorial
privileges, and that this right has been acknowledged and guaranteed by the
United States; nor is there a man so degraded as not to feel a keen sense of
injury, on being deprived of this right and driven into exile.

It is under a sense of the most pungent feelings that we make this, perhaps
our last appeal to the good people of the United States. It cannot be that the
community we are addressing, remarkable for its intelligence and religious sensibilities,
and preeminent for its devotion to the rights of man, will lay aside this appeal,
without considering that we stand in need of its sympathy and commiseration.
We know that to the Christian and the Philanthropist the voice of our multiplied
sorrow, and fiery trial will not appear as an idle tale. In our own land, on
our own soil, and in our own dwellings, which we reared for our wives and for
our little ones, when there was peace on our mountains and in our valleys, we
are encountering troubles which cannot but try out very souls. But shall we
on account of these troubles forsake our beloved country? Shall we be compelled
by a civilized and Christian people, with whom we have lived in perfect peace
for the last forty years, and for whom we have willingly bled in war, to bid
a final adieu to our homes, our farms, our streams and our beautiful forests?
No. We are still firm.. We intend still to cling, with our wonted affection,
to the land which gave us birth, and which every day of our lives brings to
us new and stronger ties of attachment. We appeal to the judge of all the earth,
who will finally award us justice, and to the good sense of the American people,
whether we are intruders upon the land of others. Our consciences bear us witness
that we are the invaders of no man's rights-we have robbed no man of his territory-we
have usurped no man's authority, nor have we deprived anyone of his unalienable
privileges. How then shall we indirectly confess the right of another people
to our land by leaving it forever? On the soil which contains the ashes of our
beloved men we wish to live-on this soil we wish to die.

We entreat those to whom the foregoing paragraphs are addressed to remember
the great law of love. "Do to others as ye would that others should do
to you."- Let them remember that of all nations on the earth they are under
the greatest obligation to obey this law. We pray them to remember that for
the sake of principle, their forefathers were compelled to leave, therefore
driven from the old world, and that the winds of persecution wafted them over
the great waters and landed them on the shores of the new world, when the Indian
was the sole lord and proprietor of these extensive domains. Let them remember
in what way they were received by the savage of America, when power was in his
hand, and his ferocity could not be restrained by any human arm. We urge them
to bear in mind, that those who would ask of them a cup of cold water and a
spot of earth, a portion of their own patrimonial possessions on which we live
and die in peace, are the descendants of those whose origin in inhabitants of
North America, history of tradition are alike insufficient to reveal. Let them
bring to remembrances these facts, and they cannot, and we are sure, they will
not fail to remember, and sympathize with us in these our trials and sufferings.

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